Ok, for everyone who doesn’t know me very well, a quick wrap up. I’m 39 years old and I am an Iron Maiden fan since I’m 12. I’ve seen them 24 times so far and I have never missed a tour since World Slavery hit me right in the face back at the old Montreal forum on november 27 th, 1984. I am a big fanboy of theirs, enough to get the NOTB album tattooed on my shoulder and spend half of my awaken time listening to them. In my eyes all of their albums are excellent and seeing them in concert is the thing in life that brings me the closest to pure happiness.

So for the final Frontier tour, I took 2 weeks of vacation to be able to travel a bit. I’ll be seeing 6 shows this summer, 6 shows in 10 days, at the following places:

Ps: I don’t go in the pits as I like to enjoy it without having to fight for my spot all the time, I'm too old for this ;)

So here is how it’s going to work for me:

Me and a bunch of Beavers (Quebecers hard core Maiden friends) are making the Toronto and New York trip with a mini bus that we are going to rent. So on friday July 2 nd, people who are not from around Montreal are going to arrive here, drink a few cold ones blasting Maiden and sleep at my house. We leave early saturday morning for Toronto, then IMOC meet up at The Loose Moose - Concert and we sleep there (Bond Hotel) and come back on the sunday.

For Ottawa we are going in 2 – 3 different cars or vans and we don’t sleep there since Montreal is the day after and we want to come back after the gig and sleep home. I bought expensive VIP tickets cause I’m bringing my 12 year old son to the gig so he won’t get pushed in front stage. I hope they’ll be worth it.

In Montreal ( it’s just near my home) I’ll be bringing my family: wife (it will be her 10 th Maiden concert) , my son (saw them ’06 & ’08 and the night before in Ottawa) and my 10 year old daughter (she saw them in ’08).

Québec city is also with the family and we sleep at the same hotel as the band so hopefully we can meet a few of them like in 2005 and 2006. The saturday morning after the show we come back to Montreal and take that minibus again en route to New York city Herald Square hotel for 3 nights.

We will surely spend the saturday night in some bar somewhere. Sunday is the train ride & shuttle bus drive to Holmdel in the afternoon for the gig (3 rd row in front ! as there is no pit section at PNC so we got lucky with those tickets !)(That’s the same place by the way where I went on stage in 2008, that PNC shed has given me good stuff !

Monday is the big all-you-can-eat-open-bar IMOC meet up at the infamous TWINS in NYC and then the concert. Back home (hopefully in one piece) on the thursday.

I really look forward to this trip and I will try to update you guys in this thread along the way when possible. If some of you are attending one of these gigs it will be my pleasure to meet you and say hi, maybe have a beer ! I will probably not be able to update on a day to day basis in the NYC trip but for the rest of it I’ll try my best.

P.S.:We started the BEAVERS gang in 2004 and since then we were fortunate enough to meet the band a few times (I even spent half an hour chatting with Rod in 2006!). They seem to have loved us since when we got the chance to spend an entire evening with them in 2006 in a Québec city bar. We got mentionned a few times by Rod in his diaries:

Québec 2006
[I]After the show last night we all ended up in the hotel with the Beavers - you may recall the "where beavers dare" T shirt l put up amongst the pics the other day. Basically the beavers are a Maiden loving club of about 50 great guys in their 20s who come to most of the Canadian shows and make a special T for the event - they print one each and some for me and the band, which l wear with pride. The shirt for this tour is brilliant as you will see when l get the pics - "these beavers dont run"!! They had all booked into the hotel and were all in the bar so we took a group shot with Dave, Steve, Jan and the beavers which they are sending me to post here. We all had a good laugh in the bar. Like most Maiden fans they were a great group of guys (and a gal!) and l spent most of the time chatting to them. They took pains not to be too enthusiastic and gave the band some space and l definitely respect that. Its cool spending time with fans but not if they get too much in your face and too pushy. They even bought me a beer or two - thanks fellas.[/I]

Montreal 2008

(Rod) [I]''And the Beavers are from Montreal – yes, you know who you are." [/I]

(Steve)[I]''It's very appropriate for us to play the final date of our Canada and USA tour in Quebec Province and we very much look forward to seeing all our fans there again, including those maniac Beavers!!!"[/I]

We always made a special t-shirt for every tour and this year it’s really a cool one. I’ll post pics latter.

Up The Irons !!

Cheers !
PowerMaiden

evildeadjedi

06-20-2010 04:54 PM

That sounds awesome! I hope you have a fun and safe trip. Keep us posted on your experience at each date.:horns:

makethemsuffer12

06-20-2010 04:58 PM

I'm going to be at the Jersey show as well, but back up in the lawn :(

JLRedWing13

06-20-2010 05:01 PM

Awesome. Good luck and have fun! :D

FelipeTheFornicator

06-20-2010 05:10 PM

sick plans! the moose is a great place too they have $2 Keith pints until 6pm during the WEEK!!! when i saw Sonata Arctica last we got tanked as shit at the moose and then hobbled over to the opera house to drink some more (with sonata)

you and i are going to be at some the same shows, Toronto and Ottawa, thats cool but im up at the front.

bon chance! bon voyage!

Maiden33

06-20-2010 05:52 PM

As usual, just one show for me (insufficient funds), but I got GA Pit tickets and plan to make the most of the day! All 4 previous times I have seen Maiden have been amazing shows and amazing experiences where the entire day has lived pleasantly in my memory. Sounds cheesy, but it is what it is.

PowerMaiden

06-20-2010 07:00 PM

within the remaining 12 days before friday the 2 nd, I'll be revisiting some of my pictures from past tours, maybe I'll post a few in here to help me past the time ...